Sheebah Karungi: Why I dropped out of school

In an interview, she said she was “tired” of seeing her mom suffer. Sheebah’s mother, Edith Kabazungu, a single mom, was raising six kids relying on money she earned as a manual labourer in coffee factories.

Sheebah has four siblings and the sixth child in the family was their cousin.

She dropped out of school when she was 15 and joined Stingerz dance group.

Her elder sister had also dropped out when she was 15 to support her mother but ended up getting married at 16.

Said Sheebah: "If mom was just surviving... I reached a point where I didn't wanna see that... I saw her surviving for so many years, it was getting to me... I was like, get out of this place, try whatever you can do... I loved dancing.”

Sheebah Karungi, who also goes by Samalie Njagala, was born on November 11, 1989, and grew up in Kawempe, a division in Kampala.

The songstress, also known as, Queen Sheebah, was born to Edith Kabazungu and Ahamada Kimali Musoke. She dropped out of school in S.2 while a student of Midland High School, Kawempe and joined the music industry when she was 15 as a dancer.

Sheebah, who also goes by Queen Karma, started with Stingerz in 2004, and then joined Obsessions in 2006.

She quit Obsessions and in 2010 she dropped Kunyenyenza, her first official single, produced by Washington and written by Cindy. Then Sizzaman wrote for her Automatic and it became a hit.

Her first mini-album titled Ice Cream came out in 2014, and it had songs like Twesana, Jordan and Ice Cream itself.

She organised her first well-attended concert at Hotel Africana in 2016, coming after her big hit Nkwatako.

Sheebah Karungi is a musical artist, dancer, actress and entrepreneur.

She debuted her acting career in Queen of Katwe as Shakira.

She's won a number of awards under organizations like HiPipo Music Awards, Uganda Music Awards, Abryanz Styles and Fashion Awards, Zzina Awards and Nigeria Entertainment Award among others.